Domino's Malaysia beefs up marketing team with Irene Foo as lead

Domino's Pizza Malaysia has appointed Irene Foo (pictured above) as head of marketing. She reports to Malaysia CEO Shamsul Amree Abdul Rahman and is being mentored by group CMO of Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia, Linda Hassan. Foo was previously with Lazada Malaysia for close to two years as VP, head of branding and communications, first joining in 2019 from Photobook Worldwide. She left her role last month.

"Domino's is a dynamic brand and company, fuel by the company’s passion in putting customers first and merging with technology. And with the food delivery industry at its acceleration growth, Domino’s is the place to be in," Foo told A+M. According to her, joining Domino’s is an opportunity for growth and she is "super excited to be part of the Domino’s family". Before Lazada and Photobook, she has also worked at PYO Travel, LivingSocial, and Quantum Showcase in marketing roles. With her background being predominantly in digital and eCommerce industries, F&B is a first for Foo. However, she is confident that she will be able to leverage her experience to bridge the gap between retail and digital as well as eCommerce. 

"The marketing team at Domino’s Pizza Malaysia has been growing tremendously over the past few years under the leadership of Linda. Being able to learn from her has been very astonishing," Foo said. It is currently looking to hire individuals who are passionate and hungry to fill the roles in eCommerce as well as brand and communications. It is also on the hunt for business analysts. 

Meanwhile, Linda (pictured below) told A+M that Domino's has been looking for the right person to lead the Malaysia market, as Foo's tech background is a good fit with the company's online-driven environment. This team took months to build, with Zoe Moraes first being hired earlier this year as GM, digital marketing with a focus on eCommerce. Domino's then brought on Chin Sook Fun as GM, sales followed by Foo to oversee the whole team as well as lead brand and communications. In fact, Domino's has been on a hunt for a VP of marketing for Malaysia since January this year.

"The marketing team at Domino's is not just doing upper funnel but also driving the business in terms of sales. Hence, I need to ensure I have the right team to move this forward. I continue to support them because the Malaysian operations is like my baby, having seen it grow from four marketing individuals and 40 stores to more than 25 marketing staff and 240 stores," Linda explained.

With Foo onboard, Linda's aim is to guide her over the next six months to eventually take over the Malaysia market. Thereafter, Linda will move on to a more strategic role to oversee digital, eCommerce, customer service and products. "With the Domino's business platforms being the same, we just need one person to work across these three markets with different levels of agility. I work closely with the CEOs now more than the marketing teams," she explained.

On the agency front, Domino's Malaysia is currently working with Acorn Communications, PHD Malaysia and 16TWO for PR, media and digital duties respectively. It was previously working with Team WPP comprising MediaCom and J. Walter Thompson in 2019 for marketing communications. Thereafter, it worked with VMLY&R for a campaign. It is currently on the hunt for a lead agency. "We have some names in mind and are currently working with there. There is no pitch as we are adopting a different approach by getting the agencies to run campaigns for us before deciding," she added.

Separately, Linda took on the Cambodian market last March when she was promoted to group CMO and has since found it to be "an interesting marketing for Domino's with a lot more opportunities for the business". Local store marketing, for example, is an important aspect within the Cambodian market. While brands, in general, tend to think big when it comes to marketing, Linda said it is also important to think about how the company is able to make the stores successfully in their respective neighbourhoods. The pizza chain currently has 10 stores in Cambodia and it has built a sales department to also carry out marketing, acting as "hunters and farmers of sales", Linda said.

"This is so I can leave the business to run in peace. It is not easy to build the brand from scratch when no one knows what Domino's is," she added. Aside from Malaysia and Singapore, the brand also has 34 stores in Singapore.

When asked how the pandemic has impacted its marketing plans, Linda said the company is in a way blessed as its business model is mainly delivery and online. "That's what everyone is trying to do now and we were well prepared. As a business, we have always been very customer-centric and data-driven, we just needed to be in the highest gear," she added. She works closely with the marketing leads in each of the three countries and is grateful to Domino's for providing resources and budgets to provide a more digital and customer-centric experience.  

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